USDA

The United States Department of Agriculture is probably one of the most significant attacks on the American public and one only a few are aware of. The Department of Agriculture was added to Congress in 1889 and was established to give farmers information on innovative practices, scientific study, and the latest in technology.  America saw an increase in new machinery, better crop production, and the elimination of erosion and other methods of sustainable farming techniques that were developed over the following decades.  Farming was hard work, risky and subject to weather, insects, and the economy. This was made most prominent to the public by a drought (the dust bowl) in the early twenties and that hard work still continues to this day even with the advent of modern technology.
It wasn’t until the 1930?s when the Progressive movement established a platform for farmers that put them in a class by themselves and as if this platform was following the Communist Manifesto to the letter it has succeeded in implementing many of the manifesto goals.  During Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, Roosevelt was originally against the subsidizing of farmers, but pressure from three political parties bent his traditional American way of thinking to succumb to the demands of the Democrats, the Communists, and the Progressives who were demanding special privileges regardless of Constitutionality.  The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) was established on May 12, 1933 and was set up as a crop-control method. Its purpose was to raise the real income of farmers to the level which they had enjoyed during a five year period when farm prices were supposed to have been at parity and equality with prices of manufactured goods.  It recognized the chief cause of low prices was over production; therefore, it created a need to cut down on surplus to drive the prices higher. This allowed Congress to use its taxing power and its power over interstate commerce to control economic activities which had traditionally been defined as being intrastate or of a local character. The Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Butler court case nullified the AAA on the grounds that the production of foodstuffs was local and not interstate commerce. This did not stop the Progressives once Roosevelt took office he sent Congress a draft bill on Feb 5, 1937 to reorganize the Federal judiciary on the grounds that insufficient and infirm judicial personnel had led to crowded dockets and intolerable delays.
Our current agriculture programs have become more convoluted with each passing decade. Today, our federal government provides a safety net unlike any welfare or corporate bailout we have ever seen.  Granted that farmers and producers should have some means of stability for unseen disasters, improvements, and future development but the current set of subsidies, insurances, and control agencies are a direct assault on the American people.
Although much of the hype is about preserving the family farm, the USDA is a far cry from helping any family in the US by the subsidize crop benefits consisting of

• Direct payment paid at a set rate every year regardless of conditions. Average $5 billion/year since 2005
• Counter-cyclical payments paid when market prices fall below certain thresholds. $1.2 billion in 2009
• Revenue Assurance Program providing for overall profitability for a given crop. Topped at $20 billion in one year.
• Marketing loans offering very favorable terms whereby farmers can realize tremendous gains through loan deficiency payments and commodity certificates.
• Disaster payments paid to recoup large losses due to natural phenomena and the government subsidizes the crop insurance to further cushion farmers from risk.  $7.3 billion in 2009 and of course the cost of crop insurance goes up as crop prices increase because the government’s premium subsidies. And since it is the taxpayer who pays a good portion of crop insurance claims, the costs we incur for any crop losses climb along with crop prices.

The price tag on the federal farm subsidies from 1995 to 2009 were a quarter of a trillion dollars this shadows the current administrations bailout of GE and undermines the welfare plan. Usually taxpayers get some money back with a bailout, theoretically, and welfare recipients are subject to time-limits, and work requirements in order to receive a minuscule relief and once more, it isn’t uniform from one applicant to another.
As if the peril of our economy isn’t enough, losing our natural resources to a police state-minded ideology should bring us back to our senses. Knowing that the abolition of private property is the first element of the Communist Manifesto, and seeing how farms are being controlled by government it should compel one to want to fight for liberty. Heavy taxes to pay for these subsidies gains us little benefit for our future. Some are selling their farms due to heavy burdens instead of leaving their farm to the next generation, and hoping a central bank will care about you happens only in the movies. When the government gains complete control over what we grow, how we grow it,  and who we sell it to and for how much should outrage every American and get your blood boiling, if it does then stand for FREEDOM and stand for SOVEREIGNTY! We will work together to ensure Congress ensures mutually beneficial trade in regulating foreign trade, helps to establish a fair value on products, works within the Constitution to protect the American Farmer and this vital industry that is the life blood of the American way of life. We’ll help to encourage diversity of crops, education and youth involvement in agriculture, establish sound agricultural experiments but mostly allow the states to decide what is in the best interest in their own state and work in harmony with the public, the environment and the farm.

The USDA, FDA, EPA and state Dept. of Agriculture are now converged into a massive out of control agency that looks into every aspect of human existence. Many times one department doesn’t know its policy and refers people to another department with the same results because the laws, rules and regulations are so extreme. Take for instance the Food Safety Modernization Act

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8RQ6FNGDxw&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ2dSwdRGns&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48ZCKCJE6g&feature=player_embedded

This Act is designed under the precepts of “safety” but gauges most of its activity toward inspections that are unfunded, gives too much authority and power to agents and violates a person’s privacy, stifles the expansion of new manufacturing concerned with all the new inspections and the new costs involved, and giving government excessive liberty to infringe and enforce on “potential” risks is an extreme on the liberty, prosperity and rights of the people.

States need to work in accord with their local educational agents to ensure that the public and employees in the producing and manufacturing of goods for human consumption are implemented, citizens need options and facilities that address the different health and conscientious needs of their choosing, and  to further establish our goals, there needs to be an increase in the amount of education and public awareness at the local level to ensure the future of our agricultural community. In today’s society, many people are being persuaded by fear, or potential threats and philosophical ideologies; they are so far removed from the day to day operations of the farming community, and policy and laws need to be such that remedy a problem without creating an environment of distrust and contempt for the well being of governments role in securing a safe and healthy food source.

The preservation of rural areas is a resource we should not take lightly and with urbanization encroaching on the many different size farmsteads, no person should feel threatened by a community or operation of their chosen profession as so many family farms have encountered in the last few decades. Only local planning and development can ensure clear boundaries for people to understand that liberty is extended on both sides of the fence. When one citizen takes a livelihood from one, he is jeopardizing the lives of many. The more established our food can be manufactured at a local level, the less need for huge Federal agencies making rules and policies about subjects they have little if any knowledge about. Practical policies and proper inspections will encourage producers to respect government authority to secure our food safety issues, limited bureaucracy will encourage innovative technology for different produce and goods marketed and communities can restore faith and trust back in the process of how our food is handled. Without trust, we can have no liberty and government should not be entrepreneurs of agriculture or the controllers of it, government is only bound to provide the opportunities, education and protection. This process could eliminate the need for so many agencies and disperse the responsibility to state ran offices with the FDA returning to her rightful place in ensuring that farmers have an outlet for foreign trade and access to advanced technology at the Federal level